My second attempt at amigurumi resulted in an almost convincing toy!
This is Frankie the Silent Film Star. You might remember him from such slapstick classics as Crackerjack Capers and Gold Diggers of Aught Six. Unfortunately the talented tap-dancing Frankie was phased out of Hollywood once the talkies took over—there were only so many situations writers could come up with to explain away his lack of a mouth.
I guess Frankie doesn’t look drastically different from my pathetic Little Give Up of last fall, but armed with acrylic yarn and a metal crochet hook (thanks, Rebecca!), it wasn’t half the struggle this time. I primarily used this kind of blurry YouTube video to refresh my technique and then experimented with simple increases and decreases. And a star was born!
He’s adorable, love his soon to be bald head! (reminds me of a friend!)
Trust me he’s far more lovely than all my attempts… :-p But thanks for the video… maybe that helps!
He looks adorable–this is a first attempt at crochet?! Wow. Thanks for the link to the video–I really want to learn to crochet little amigurumi critters too. The stitches are so clean. Great job! :-)
Maybe I’m revealing my ignorance here, but my brain sort of mixed your creations into amigurumi-land. They are all made of cute, and it just sort of happened. Does amigurumi have to be specifically crocheted?
I am working my way through my first one, a crocheted katamari, and it’s difficult! I think I’m getting the hang of it now, and all the cursing and frogging looks to be paying off.
That’s a great question, Cristina. Technically “amigurumi” means crocheted or knitted toys, but it’s a term that’s most associated with crochet, so that’s why I used it that way. For me, it’s quite a challenge to go from knitting to crocheting toys—I guess just learning a new way to hold my hands and manipulate the yarn and hook takes some real concentration. I was having seriously cramped fingers last night! Hoping it gets easier.
thanx for the link to the video…. i’m a lil’ less afraid of picking up one of those scary hooks now.
I also think of Anna’s toys as looking amigurumi-ish–to me it’s any very small yarn toy that is too cute for words! :) I like Anna’s patterns because I prefer wool, felting, and knitting, so I’m able to make really cute amigurumi-ish things with knitting when I use her patterns! :)
For those wanting to learn amigurumi, I use the patterns on Lion Brand Yarn’s website. They’re free and really easy to do. It’s also easy to adapt any basic amigurumi pattern to create your own animal, just by changing the yarn color and ear shape or size.
He’s so cute. But don’t you think he needs a little brush mustache?
Frankie is awesome. Quite awesome.
Thanks, Domino! I like the idea of a mustache, too, but I’m kind of getting a Hitler effect with that….
I love it. It’s adorable. Too bad that’s not a knitted pattern. I don’t have much crochet knowledge.
I have been oggling your patterns for a while and think it is about time I knit myself a friend. I love all your patterns. They are so full of whimsy!